Singapore Detains Alleged Terror Group Member

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From 'International Herald Tribune': Authorities in Singapore arrested a suspected Muslim terror group member who once trained with militants in Afghanistan, the government said. Rijal Yadri Jumari, a 27-year-old Singaporean, was arrested last month for suspected involvement with Jemaah Islamiyah, the Home Affairs Ministry said Sunday in a statement on its Web site. The group is a loose network of Muslim militants in Southeast Asia. Rijal's arrest was announced amid a nationwide manhunt for a top Muslim terror suspect who escaped a high-security Singapore prison nearly a month ago.

In Pakistan, Rijal joined Jemaah Islamiyah's Al-Ghuraba cell, the ministry said. It did not say when. "He was one of several students talent-spotted by the JI to be groomed to become a future leader in the JI organization," the statement said. It said Rijal was sent to Afghanistan for terrorist training at an al-Qaida camp in Kandahar in 2000. While there he was trained in weapons handling, explosives, surveillance and guerrilla warfare - and he allegedly met al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden a number of times, the statement said.

Rijal later went into hiding to evade Singapore authorities, the ministry said. He was arrested with the help of "regional authorities" after Singapore's Internal Security Department discovered his whereabouts, the statement said. It did not say where he was arrested or give other details. At the time of his arrest, Rijal was suspected of working with foreign Jemaah Islamiyah operatives to discuss regrouping and reviving the network. He was arrested in February and detained on March 20 under the Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial.

Singapore, a close ally of the United States and a staunch supporter of the war on terror, was named an al-Qaida target by the group's alleged operative Khalid Sheikh Mohamed during a tribunal last year at the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Last month, the suspected local commander of the Jemaah Islamiyah network, Mas Selamat Kastari - suspected of once plotting to crash an airplane into Singapore's international airport - slipped away from a detention facility. The jailbreak, which triggered an island-wide hunt and tightening of border security, has been described by local leaders as a setback to the reputation of the usually well-policed island republic.